RAH wrote this book in response to what he viewed as a wave of "pacificism" that swept over the US during the late 50's and early 60's . It was a thought provoking novel about the role and purpose of the military in a modern society and the responsibility of the citizentry to that society. How that book became this movie reflects more on the society that we have become (dumbing down is the phrase that comes to mind)then the "fascist" ideals that RAH was roasted for then (really a military coming of age book). gut the book of any intelligence, then whip up a mishmash of alien/species/star wars/private ryan/titanic ( i dunno ) ripoffs that is cobbled together with as much violence as time and dollars will allow. Then add the sorriest group of actors (except Michael Ironside)that ever embarrassed themselves before an audience..god I was pulling for the bugs!!!

One of the most inexplicably "bad" good movies of our time. I remember once hearing Paul Verhoeven explain this movie as trying to revive the classic B-level "kill all the giant monsters movie". Well he failed miserably, but I think this film is not without merit. The action scenes are exciting,though perplexing(man can send itself millions of miles across galaxies to fight an unknown enemy, yet doesn't understand the concept of artillery or even sending a goddamn tank to save thousands of worthless grunts). For my money, a better movie would involve the facists sending super-smart cyborgs to fight the bugs, Paul Verhoeven could then draw on deeper themes like he did in the much better Robocop. No, actually that would suck too. Also, why the hell isn't Denise Richards naked like in Wild Things. Her tits would make me forget every single flaw.

I enjoyed the action in this one, I loved seeing people get ripped to pieces. Sure, everything was computer animated, but over the years, I've learned to cope with every movie being little more than a cartoon. The only thing that made me queasy about the movie, was the acting, save Michael Ironside. Basically, everytime I watch this, I hope, by some miracle, that the ending will magically change, and every bad actor in this movie gets ripped to bloody pieces.

When my friends and I first watched this movie,we alternated between making fun of it and beggingto turn it off. We made it through to the end, ourbrains scarred for life. The first problem I noted was, why are we invading their planet? The humans (as in real life) areagressive war mongers who decide it is their divineright to own the universe. From that point on, Iwas rooting for the aliens, who were really justdefending their home. The psuedo-jock heroes didnt score points with meeither, acting like testosterone laden zombies whothe director screamed "over-act!" at on randomoccasions. Michael Ironside was the only characterwho made sense and added an enjoyment factorto this turkey. The tatoos have been mentioned, make no sense,and only add to the eye rolling about thesemoronic characters. Another thing thats been mentioned but cannot haveenough said on it is the lack of support the soldiershad. When watching the movie, I continued to ponderwhat had happened to air support since the napalmdropping in Vietnam. No fighters, no bombers, justa small group of guys kicked out of the transportwith puny rifles and a tatoo for armour. The bugs were made with astounding computeranimation. However there were some very noticeablemodel/parts that were not animated which stuckout. Maybe because of my experience with computer graphics and animation, it was more obvious to me, dont know... Finaly the brain bug gets captured, surrounded byhundreds of armed bloodthirsty warriors as itsrace lay dead or dying, and it takes a psychic to know "its scared"...and everyone cheers like thatwas a big secret. If they had animated it p**singitself it couldnt have been more obvious. When it was over, I honestly couldnt believe moviesthat bad could be made in this day and age. I havesince been proven wrong, but this one will ramainetched in my memory as one of the worst movies ofthe decade. I may buy it just for the amazing potential for mocking it.

Starship Troopers is one great movie -- unless you make the mistake of taking is seriously.

The most memorable sequence, I believe, is when the photogenic Denise Richards is impaled through her left shoulder by a 14-foot arachnid. (Throughout most of the movie all she is allowed to do is advertise her orthodontist's work.) This can't be much different than being crucified — you die from shock, blood loss and sheer agony. You are at least expected to pass out.

But not Denise.

She is impaled, then lifted off the ground by the arachnid and dropped in front of the "brain bug" which wants to suck her brains out. (What a waste.) But Denise manages to slice off the brain bug's sucking appendage (call it whatever you want). Then she jumps to her feet, Johnny Rico has arrived, and is able to handle an automatic weapon.

She then shoots the arachnids and makes a run for it because a fallen soldier is about to detonate a portable nuke. At the last moment, she jumps into a ravine, escaping the blast.

She then emerges with Johnny out of the cave into the sunlight with the rest of the victorious troopers. They caught the brain bug!

She rejoices with the rest of the gang, then walks away arm-in-arm with Johnny and Neil Patrick Harris optimistic about the War Against The Bug.

I wish I could be like Denise. She never calls for a medic; never passes out; doesn't bleed to death; and is able to put the glow of victory above her mangled shoulder and chest.

What else is there to say about Starship Troopers? Only that there are at least a dozen other funny sequences leading up to Denise's valiant performance of her duty.

I think the person who did the review who said this was a good movie disguised as a really bad movie has a point (but I don't necessarily agree with). The idea of the movie Starship Troopers, as I read it, was about militarism like the novel, but it took the polar opposite view of it. The movies point seemed to be about how silly militarism was, about how patriotic fervor and rushing off to "fight the good fight" simply results in alot of young people dying horrible, pointless deaths on some distant rock. In that way, it comes across brilliantly, though I don't agree with it. Now, I'm a big fan of Heinleins work (despite some of his later stuff with tends to be rant heavy) and I kind of found the fact that they went in the complete opposite direction of book (one of the points of the book is tha militarism is necessary for the survival of the state) a bit offensive. Starship Troopers is a very thought provoking novel. I don't agree with all of Heinleins politics and I found the society in the book a bit disturbing, but to take the name and some of the names of the characters and then trash the whole point of the very well written novel to me is wrong. They shouldn't step all over his work like that.

this is, in my opinion, the best film on this site. If you have see the DVD commentary, you learn at the end that the film wasn't supposed to be about attacking bugs at all. It was trying to say that the government isn't always right. But I think Rob Heinlein, who wrote the novel, could've created a better scenario for who the troope had to fight rather than fictional planets with oversized bugs. I haven't seen the film for a while, but i I think there was this bug who was this gigantic blue glob who sat in the middle of outer space and destroyed ships. No meterors. No sattelites. Just ships. You'd think it'd destroy everything around it wouldn't you?

>>i have an e-mail address. i don't wanna leave it and get stupid offers from businesses

The only comment that I have about this show which hasn't already been quite excellently covered is this:

I'm not sure the MI in this show deserve artillery support, if they're so unprofessional that when the CO sticks his head in with an alert for two of his troopers (Rico and Wusserface who dies minutes later), finds them in flagrante, and rather than yell their asses off for wasting energy like that, SMILES INDULGENTLY and tells them they've got EXTRA TIME TO GET READY! Errrr....

I think Paul Verhoeven must have taken a serious blow to the head just prior to filming (but, always remember, there's some screenwriters to heap blame on as well). I thought the exterior scenes in space were pretty good. If you haven't seen this yet, go rent the animated series; it's superior in many ways (better armour, slightly more professionalism, no giant lips on the actors, &ct).

The Starship Troopers Film adaptation (Henceforth refered to as "Nazis in Space", it sure as hell ain't Starship Troopers) is the worst interpritation of Heinleins novel. The only thing "Nazis In Space" as in common with the Starship Troopers novel is the title and names of the characters, ships, and planets. Oh yeah, they keep the Bugs, however the bugs in the Novel are more intellegent.

Also the Government system portrayed in the book is more akin to the Athenian government, with Veterans the only ones alowed to vote. In "Nazis in Space", the govenment system is a Socialist Dictatorship.

Now we get to the Powered Suits, the vehicles that give the Mobile Infantry it's name. These magnificant Machines are left out of "Nazis in Space". Think "Top Gun" without the Fighter Jets, that's the same scenario you have with "Nazis in Space".

In conclusion: If you want to check out Heinlein's work, go read the book or watch a "Fansub" of the Japanese Animated version (Yes there is one out, but only in Japan). If you want utter crap that is a deviation from the book it's allegedly based upon, "Nazis in Space" is for you.

well when i first saw the trailer the immediate thought was.. 'wow an aliens like story with more bugs and more guns (not they're any good)'

i quite enjoyed it at the time which was a long time ago! and i forgot about it, then they showed it on TV and then i thought..'wait a minute this ain't the same...', i then thought this movie was utter crap... the acting was pants and i agree with the above... the military should have kicked ass. there is also a cheesy factor involved that i don't like. The only problem with the review is that there was a line saying theres some nudity but no one we want to c nude.. hmm i dunno, i quite liked dizzy NOT rico though lol... too bad dizzy had to die she had a certain sexy but mean b***h about her.So to conclude... its an ok movie with some laughs, robocop like news clips inserted... er... actually its quite pants :P except for dizy hmmm lol

Aguante Buenos Aires. Creo que los alienigenas la atacaron porque era la capital del mundo para esa altura.Pierde mucho con la traduccion al ingles, mejor seria verla en su espaniol original.(Buenos Aires rules. I think aliens attacked it because it was the capitol of the world by that time.The movie looses a lot when translated to English, it would be much better to hear it in its original Spanish)

As I saw the film before reading the novel, I heartily agree that the film makers ignored the points Heinlein was making when he wrote Starship Troopers. The Afrika Korps-style caps everyone wore gave me a chuckle ("Oh, they dress like Nazis, this must be a fascist society"). Several previous posts here already explain the socio-political points that I would have expressed had I seen this review sooner.I have to chime in on the technical points of the film though. As stated earlier, what happened to the ideas of, say, preliminary bombardment, air support (one incendiary raid by six bombers, and it's not even in support of ground troops?), armor, artillery, mobility (these guys drop in and then move about ON FOOT?), and tactics? I should also mention the glaring discrepancy regarding technology in the film. If I understand correctly, soldiers of the future carry hand-held nuclear weapons, travel between solar systems, etc... but they still use magazine-fed automatic rifles? Nobody's developed more advanced small arms by then? I'd love to know who controlled the allocation of military funding in the future portrayed in this bomb (pardon the pun).One last note: the ship "Rodger Young" was named after a hero of the struggle on Guadalcanal (which took place in World War 2 for you history-class snoozers out there).